Audiobus: Use your music apps together.

What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.

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Audiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.

Xequence midi sequencer ?

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Comments

  • ExAsperis99ExAsperis99

    @JohnnyGoodyear said:

    @ExAsperis99 said:

    @gusgranite said:

    @Audiojunkie said:

    @SevenSystems said:

    @Panthemusicalgoat said:
    The developer said an arp is likely in a future update which would be an amazing addition. Already loving this app. Thanks again for giving iphone users a sequencer (finally!)

    Thank you! Arp is definitely on the cards, it will probably be a very moderately priced IAP. Our plan is to make something comparable in features to Sunrizer's or Poison-202's arp.

    StepPolyArp would be a great example of the perfect arp. :smile:

    Rather than trying to replicate a great piece of software then, I wonder if a well thought out tutorial of how to use both apps together would be better for all concer? Maybe better integration is what we need rather than a features competition?

    Noble goal, but that means no money for the developer!

    Speaking of: I think you'll be surprised at how sales will blossom with a decent video tutorial. I think there are many like me who remain on the fence without visual encouragement.

    And finally: how much is this thing? There's an initial price for four tracks? And then an IAP for...more tracks? It's a little unclear.

    Yes on the simple straightforward vid. Not only encourage buyers, but also turns slow users (self) into salesmen etc.

    EXACTLY. I'm never happier than when I can answer a question on these forums. (A rare occasion.)

  • ciancian

    IAPs for an arpeggiator and step sequencer seems reasonable. Not everybody wants/needs those things - those that do are going to be willing to pay for them.

  • SevenSystemsSevenSystems

    @gusgranite said:
    Rather than trying to replicate a great piece of software then, I wonder if a well thought out tutorial of how to use both apps together would be better for all concer? Maybe better integration is what we need rather than a features competition?

    Just tested StepPolyArp, really easy:

    • Start SPA, go to its MIDI settings, in "MIdi out", enable "StepPolyArp Midi out" (NOT Xequence Destination!)
    • In Xequence, go to Settings ("..."), enable MIDI In, tap "Sources: Any", disable "Any", and enable "StepPolyArp"
    • You can also enable "MIDI Thru" in Xequence which will let you use SPA to directly play the Xequence instrument of the currently selected track, but that's covered in the manual as well.
  • SevenSystemsSevenSystems
    edited September 2017

    Err OK, two large posts got lost now :/ Trying one by one and a bit more concise:

    @gusgranite said:
    Rather than trying to replicate a great piece of software then, I wonder if a well thought out tutorial of how to use both apps together would be better for all concer? Maybe better integration is what we need rather than a features competition?

    Using SPA in Xequence is relatively easy:

    1. In SPA, go to its Settings (MIDI Icon), and in "Midi out", enable "StepPolyArp Midi out" (NOT Xequence Destination!)
    2. In Xequence, go to Settings ("..." Icon), enable "MIDI In", tap on "Sources: Any", disable "Any", and enable "StepPolyArp" instead
    3. Enable "MIDI Thru"
    4. Boom. You can now use SPA to play the currently selected track and instrument in Xequence.
    5. If you hit "Record" in Xequence now, it will of course record the arpeggiated notes from SPA.
  • SevenSystemsSevenSystems

    @cian said:

    No time signature or tempo changes, sorry.

    Any plans to implement these?

    The problem is that implementing these means a completely different (more complex) software architecture, and we've tried to weight the advantages with the percentage of music where this is needed, which unfortunately is quite low, so for now, implementing these would mean rewriting large parts of Xequence. So if it's coming, then it'll not be very soon. Sorry! :(

  • JohnnyGoodyearJohnnyGoodyear

    @SevenSystems said:
    Err OK, two large posts got lost now :/ Trying one by one and a bit more concise:

    @gusgranite said:
    Rather than trying to replicate a great piece of software then, I wonder if a well thought out tutorial of how to use both apps together would be better for all concer? Maybe better integration is what we need rather than a features competition?

    Using SPA in Xequence is relatively easy:

    1. In SPA, go to its Settings (MIDI Icon), and in "Midi out", enable "StepPolyArp Midi out" (NOT Xequence Destination!)
    2. In Xequence, go to Settings ("..." Icon), enable "MIDI In", tap on "Sources: Any", disable "Any", and enable "StepPolyArp" instead
    3. Enable "MIDI Thru"
    4. Boom. You can now use SPA to play the currently selected track and instrument in Xequence.
    5. If you hit "Record" in Xequence now, it will of course record the arpeggiated notes from SPA.

    Thanks for this. Look forward to giving it a go...

  • gusgranitegusgranite

    @ExAsperis99 said:

    @gusgranite said:

    @Audiojunkie said:

    @SevenSystems said:

    @Panthemusicalgoat said:
    The developer said an arp is likely in a future update which would be an amazing addition. Already loving this app. Thanks again for giving iphone users a sequencer (finally!)

    Thank you! Arp is definitely on the cards, it will probably be a very moderately priced IAP. Our plan is to make something comparable in features to Sunrizer's or Poison-202's arp.

    StepPolyArp would be a great example of the perfect arp. :smile:

    Rather than trying to replicate a great piece of software then, I wonder if a well thought out tutorial of how to use both apps together would be better for all concer? Maybe better integration is what we need rather than a features competition?

    Noble goal, but that means no money for the developer!

    It's a bit of an OT topic but I'm not sure it would mean no money for the developer. You could have a best of breed midi sequencer and a best of breed arp tightly integrated together. And which developer are we referring to - the one who had developed the new app or the one who has developed the best of breed app in the first place? It's actually Zeeon that got me thinking about this. I think the developer mentioned that the sequencer was not the primary goal. A great sounding AU synth was.

    However, please go ahead and make Xequence amazing! :smile: It just got me thinking...

  • gusgranitegusgranite

    Eek - just seen all the other responses. You guys are fast! Good points everyone :smile:

  • SevenSystemsSevenSystems
    edited September 2017

    @JohnnyGoodyear said:
    Thanks for this. Look forward to giving it a go...

    No bother. I can understand though how people are confused by MIDI, seeing that you have to explicitly NOT choose the app as destination that you really want to... use... as... destination... :o

    The problem is that CoreMIDI is really not that well documented (many will disagree, but I have very high expectations when it comes to documentation... o:) ) and thus developers are often "fishing in the mud" (German expression) while implementing it, which leads to these results.

  • SevenSystemsSevenSystems

    BTW, the Quickstart Manual is now finished and has a new chapter "Example Setups", which include:

    • How to drive a single synth (simplest case)
    • How to use a multi-timbral app (Gadget)
    • How to host several AUs inside AUM and control them from Xequence
    • How to use and record an external Arpeggiator app (StepPolyArp, or was it PolyStepArp :| )

    Same URL as always, or under "Help/Feedback" in "Settings".

  • echooperaechoopera

    1 feature:

    Conditional Trigs

    B)

  • memelordmemelord

    @SevenSystems said:

    @memelord said:
    What happens is that the iPolysix starts playing, but the Volca starts about (but not quite) one bar later and while in the same tempo, not in the same time.

    ...

    • Is there any way on the Volca that lets you see what idea of the current song position it has? (Bars/Beats)... that would be important for me to investigate. If you move the song position in Xequence to say, bar 7... is it on bar 7 on the Volca as well? (you don't need to hit Play, it should be enough to use the ruler to change the song position, and the Volca should acquire it)
      ...

    • You said that it plays in the same tempo, so, if there's a way for you to see what idea of current BPM the Volca has: if you set BPM to 90 in Xequence and then hit play, does the Volca switch to 90? If you then stop Xequence, set the BPM to 100, and start playing again, is the Volca now set to 100?

    I'll put a video together later, but the problem here seems to be that while some Volcas (IIRC) support song position pointer, the Sample doesn't. I guess it just starts pounding its 16-step pattern (it doesn't have time signature as such, you can just alter the pattern length) from the beginning upon receiving start and from whereever it was when receiving continue (pure speculation here.) The clock seemed to be fine, as it changed tempo when I did that in Xequence. That being so, to me it seems that Xequence should, for this device to work correctly, preferably send start from the very beginning, or at least from the 1st beat of the next bar.

    @SevenSystems said:

    • How big is the offset between Xequence and Volca? 1 beat? 1 bar? Or something in between? Don't even know if the Volca has a timeline but anyway...

    I don't have the Volca right now here with me, but it might've been that the Volca started ~3 beats too late - it was as if the Volca started rolling at around beat 1.3. (for clarity, talking 1-based indices here, I know software guys sometimes get confused :wink:). When starting playback, how much further do you send the SPP for a synced MIDI destination?

  • brambosbrambos

    Do Volcas even support SPP and advanced transport? As far as I know they only do MIDI Clock/Start/Stop/Continue.

  • memelordmemelord
    edited September 2017

    @brambos said:
    Do Volcas even support SPP and advanced transport? As far as I know they only do MIDI Clock/Start/Stop/Continue.

    Sample doesn't, that I know for sure. Now that I actually had a look, Volca FM's MIDI implementation chart says only the four LSBs of the third byte (or second payload byte) are used, and they correspond to steps 1 to 16.

  • PanthemusicalgoatPanthemusicalgoat
    edited September 2017

    The more I mess with this sequencer the more I like it. Finally I can record different synth parts and then refine notes/tweak knobs. Something I've been missing since nanostudio 1 is on its way out

  • robosardinerobosardine

    Another vote for a video here. Any plans?

  • SevenSystemsSevenSystems
    edited September 2017

    @memelord said:
    to me it seems that Xequence should, for this device to work correctly, preferably send start from the very beginning, or at least from the 1st beat of the next bar.

    I don't have the Volca right now here with me, but it might've been that the Volca started ~3 beats too late - it was as if the Volca started rolling at around beat 1.3. (for clarity, talking 1-based indices here, I know software guys sometimes get confused :wink:). When starting playback, how much further do you send the SPP for a synced MIDI destination?

    Thanks for the detailed info, that should help a lot. If the device doesn't support SPP, then it can -- as you mentioned -- probably only ever get the right time if the Start / Continue event is sent on the next bar, not on the next beat. I could make this a toggle: "Start MIDI Sync on next: Beat | Bar"... maybe even per instrument, so that it can be left on "Beat" for all instruments that do support SPP?

    Currently, when you start playback, Xequence immediately sends an SPP for the next beat, and then a Continue exactly on that beat. It doesn't ever send Start, because within our limited tests, it didn't seem to be necessary. What it does is that when the song loop wraps around, it sends another SPP for the loop's start, and a Continue immediately after. I didn't read the MIDI spec on that thoroughly as it seemed to work well enough, but maybe I should. It's just 350 pages anyway B)

    BTW: If you happen to know an app that shows the same behavior as the Volca, that would be great for testing.

    And yes, I always found 0-based indices strange in programming languages. That's why I liked LUA. But who uses that...

  • SevenSystemsSevenSystems

    @robosardine said:
    Another vote for a video here. Any plans?

    Knee deep in other stuff here right now, but I'd appreciate it if some "fresh Xequence Genius" in the community made one, of course! :)

  • fattigmanfattigman

    For those of you that have tried both genome and xequencer. How do they differ?

  • RUST( i )KRUST( i )K

    No time to read 7 pages.

    Do I buy this or not?

  • SevenSystemsSevenSystems
    edited September 2017

    @RUST( i )K said:
    No time to read 7 pages.
    Do I buy this or not?

    There's always the Quickstart Guide. It's even more than 7 pages but it's more concise (is that a contradiction?)
    http://www.seven.systems/xequence/manual/

  • echooperaechoopera

    @RUST( i )K said:
    No time to read 7 pages.

    Do I buy this or not?

    If you are happy with Modstep and Beatmaker 3...I don't think you need it.

    That's my rational at least...plus no AB3 or Link Support...and I think it can't sync external gear...though I may be wrong on that last detail.

  • RUST( i )KRUST( i )K

    @SevenSystems said:

    @RUST( i )K said:
    No time to read 7 pages.
    Do I buy this or not?

    There's always the Quickstart Guide. It's even more than 7 pages but it's more concise (is that a contradiction?)
    http://www.seven.systems/xequence/manual/

    Tell me you are the developer?

    LOL

    Fuck.

    Let's hope the app is more logical than this response.

    So, tell me.

    Why would a person like this app? What is the cool unique thing about this app?

    First off, I see Universal.

    Huge for me. Genome is what I use. I admire Modstep.

    But do no good to me on my phone.

    So, tell me something else that is a cool thing that I should buy this app?

  • wimwim

    @RUST( i )K said:

    So, tell me something else that is a cool thing that I should buy this app?

    You don't have to worry about relative sound quality ... there is no sound. ;)

    Sorry ... For me the main reason is it's a great solution on the phone. It's well executed and guaranteed to only get better. Also, linear composition is a good discipline to try to get out of the rut of just creating a bunch of loops.

    I may use it less when BM3 comes out for the iPhone, but for now happy, happy, happy. Plus, to get started in a big way, it's only $4.99, which gets you going with up to 4 instruments. I bought the $8.99 iAP for unlimited, but haven't even broken the 4 threshold. My composition time on iPhone tends to be limited to when I can squeeze in a moment.

  • wimwim
    edited September 2017

    Another thing I like a lot is the easy ability to create multiple "lanes" for a single instrument. I like to separate out my hats, percussion, etc. from the main beat, and this makes that a breeze - much more so than BM3 and other DAWs.

    AB3 Midi and Link, which are coming, will put it way over the top.

  • ciancian

    It's just a different type of interface. This is closed to the classic timeline sequencer that you get with Logic, Cubase, etc - implemented in the way that nanostudio does things.

    If that's useful to you then you probably want it, otherwise you may not.

    For me personally I don't think it offers anything that I can't get with Beatmaker (I'm happy to wait for universal on that) - but your milage may vary.

  • ExAsperis99ExAsperis99

    @RUST( i )K said:

    @SevenSystems said:

    @RUST( i )K said:
    No time to read 7 pages.
    Do I buy this or not?

    There's always the Quickstart Guide. It's even more than 7 pages but it's more concise (is that a contradiction?)
    http://www.seven.systems/xequence/manual/

    Tell me you are the developer?

    LOL

    Fuck.

    Let's hope the app is more logical than this response.

    So, tell me.

    Why would a person like this app? What is the cool unique thing about this app?

    First off, I see Universal.

    Huge for me. Genome is what I use. I admire Modstep.

    But do no good to me on my phone.

    So, tell me something else that is a cool thing that I should buy this app?

    My favorite part is when you arrive days after this discussion started and demand to be brought up to speed immediately because you can't be bothered to read the thread yourself. The actual developer of the software answers you DIRECTLY, and you give him shit!

    This forum — myself included — is fucking nuts!

    Because I'm going to say again: Has anybody made a video?!
    hahahaha

  • StormJH1StormJH1

    @SevenSystems - Thanks for your earlier responses on instrument/MIDI routing. It absolutely works now...I made sure only to route the controller (nanoKEY2) to Xequence, and let the MIDI Thru do the rest. So I did one example where I had Roland SoundCanvas on MIDI Channel 1 and MitoSynth on MIDI Channel 2, and the instrument routing worked properly on playback.

    But I think the controller was also playing notes for both synths as long as they were active in the background. You couldn't use the mute button to silence one of them in Xequence, but I'm not sure if this is because of Xequence...it could simply be that the apps themselves are accepting MIDI messages from the nanoKEY2 in the background. This is why I hate MIDI and software synths sometimes :) But it is working.

    I really would like the metronome to be just an internal click or clave noise versus having to assign it to one of the music apps to generate a click track. Not sure if anyone else feels that way or suggested it, but it just seems like most grooveboxes or drum apps with live recording offer some kind of internal metronome that plays when the transport runs.

    I'll have to the check the manual, but it seems like the app is auto-quantizing when I record as a default? I saw how you could quantize already-recorded notes in the editor, but it seems it just did that when they record anyway.

    I really should try this on my 12.9" iPad. Yes, I got it so I could use it on the phone, but maybe it'd be easier to learn on the big screen versus learning everything initially on a phone.

    Thanks again!

  • wimwim
    edited September 2017

    @StormJH1 said:
    I really would like the metronome to be just an internal click or clave noise versus having to assign it to one of the music apps to generate a click track. Not sure if anyone else feels that way or suggested it, but it just seems like most grooveboxes or drum apps with live recording offer some kind of internal metronome that plays when the transport runs.

    Agree here. I totally get the design decision to not add in clutter of an audio subsystem, but it ends up being an inconvenience. Maybe when AB3 midi is there and I can just save a state where the app providing the metronome would start automatically it'll be better. But, I have to admit it's an annoyance. Very often I'm just setting up a quick noodle, and every extra step needed to get there eats into that time.

  • ExAsperis99ExAsperis99

    @wim said:

    @StormJH1 said:
    I really would like the metronome to be just an internal click or clave noise versus having to assign it to one of the music apps to generate a click track. Not sure if anyone else feels that way or suggested it, but it just seems like most grooveboxes or drum apps with live recording offer some kind of internal metronome that plays when the transport runs.

    Agree here. I totally get the design decision to not add in clutter of an audio subsystem, but it ends up being an inconvenience. Maybe when AB3 midi is there and I can just save a state where the app providing the metronome would start automatically it'll be better. But no, I have to admit it's an annoyance. Very often I'm just setting up a quick noodle, and every extra step needed to get there eats into that time.

    +1

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